Goodbye?

I had a rather poignant conversation in the middle of a rather ordinary day. 

How do you say goodbye? (Besides the obvious). 

How do you say goodbye to a friend that you know you may not see again for awhile? How do you say goodbye to a co-worker that you’re leaving behind for a new job? How do you say goodbye to a lover or a family member?

Or do you? Do you ever say goodbye? Or do you just keep that part of your life alive somewhere? Why even say goodbye in the first place? Whose to say you won’t meet again? 

So, what do you do? (So many questions!)

Well, all I have to say is that I’ve never regretted that I said goodbye to someone when I did. There have been times in my life when I said goodbye, and it just stuck, and I never saw that person again. 

And at the same time, I’ve never had a moment in which I wished to say goodbye to someone one last time. Even for my grandmother who passed that I did not say goodbye to, because my memory has preserved her as the great person she was, not the sick person. 

On the other hand, I’ve kept up relationships in my life for no other reason than because I was afraid to say goodbye. Because it inevitably meant the end of something. 

Maybe instead we can all be hopeful enough that we won’t have to say goodbye, but smart enough to know that we may have to someday.